幾乎都要把自己弄碎了。

It was a slate, in such distress because of a false number in the sum, that it had almost broken itself to pieces.

鉛筆拉著它的繩子，就好像它是一隻想幫忙卻又無能為力的小狗。

the pencil pulled and tugged at its string as if it were a little dog that wanted to help, but could not.

接著，雅爾瑪的習字本傳來了一聲呻吟。

And then came a moan from hjalmar’s copy - book.

哦，聽起來真可怕！每一頁上都站著一排大寫字母，每個大寫字母旁邊都有一個小寫字母。

oh, it was quite terrible to hear! on each leaf stood a row of capital letters, every one having a small letter by its side.

這就構成了一個字帖；

this formed a copy;

在這些字母下面是雅爾瑪寫的其他字母：

under these were other letters, which hjalmar had written:

它們以為自己看起來像字帖上的字，但它們錯了；

they fancied they looked like the copy, but they were mistaken;

因為它們歪向一邊，好像要從鉛筆線上倒下去似的。

for they were leaning on one side as if they intended to fall over the pencil - lines.

“看，你們應該這樣站著。” 字帖說。

“See, this is the way you should hold yourselves,” said the copy.

“看這兒，你們應該這樣傾斜，帶著優美的弧度。”

“Look here, you should slope thus, with a graceful curve.”

“哦，我們很想這樣做，可是我們做不到。” 雅爾瑪寫的字母說；

“oh, we are very willing to do so, but we cannot,” said hjalmar’s letters;

“我們寫得太糟糕了。”

“we are so wretchedly made.”

“那你們就得被擦掉了。” 奧勒 - 盧科伊說。

“You must be scratched out, then,” said ole - Luk - oie.

“哦，不！” 它們叫道，然後它們站得非常優雅，看起來很是賞心悅目。

“oh, no!” they cried, and then they stood up so gracefully it was quite a ple